A plausibly chilling what-if tale with a smart, sensitive hero.
A young woman whose body contains a cancer-curing enzyme becomes the target of a ruthless conspiracy in this debut thriller.
Last year, Megan Bishop’s mother died of cancer and her distraught father killed himself. Megan left Seattle for her parents’ isolated cabin in Stillanomish Valley, where she tries to work on her master’s degree coding project—but her peace is interrupted by an avalanche of strangers begging for help. Doxxers have invaded confidential medical records to publicly identify those belonging to a rare group of people whose livers contain a biomaterial that prevents and cures cancer called Carcinoma Immune Factor 117—or Raether’s enzyme, after a study subject. Megan is one, and the gold rush for her biomaterial soon goes beyond cancer patients. Some R-positives like Megan have disappeared, perhaps kidnapped by cartels, and now violent criminals are after her at the behest of a wealthy, power-seeking, and malignantly bitter man. Their first attempt fails, and Megan goes into hiding with the help of her Seattle friends, but the bounty hunters are well funded and determined to get their payoff. Megan soon faces an ordeal that will test her intelligence, problem-solving skills, and courage to the utmost. In his book, Flynn goes to some very dark places with his intriguing scenario. Innocents die; authority figures offer dubious protection; and Megan gets caught in a hideous nightmare. Some R-positives are turned into lobotomized organ donors. The author nicely captures the atmosphere in Megan’s circle of brainy, nerdy, sweet friends, making good use of the hero’s admirably analytical mind in the final showdown. The pace lags in the middle section as the specifics of Megan’s flight and identity change are worked out in careful detail, but the ending is taut and rivetingly suspenseful.
A plausibly chilling what-if tale with a smart, sensitive hero.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73518-390-9
Page Count: 442
Publisher: Tensile Press
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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